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Latest News
Buyers
snapping up houses: Sales moving quickly before expected rise
in interest rates
By Sarah Arnquist, Staff Writer, West Central
Tribune
The real estate market has never been better, according to
local agents. Debbie Caylor-Means, of Lakes Area Realty in
Spicer, said houses are selling faster than they ever have
in her 14 years in the business. “With
all the buyers out there, we don’t have enough (houses)
to sell,” she said. Thirty-year veteran of the real
estate business Randy Ryan said “overall the market
is extremely strong.”
Ryan owns Re/Max Real Estate in Willmar, Spicer and Olivia.
He said expectations that interest rates will continue to
rise have created a recent surge of home buyers.
“Those on top of (interest rates) realize that they
have to get in now, and they are actively buying,” Ryan
said. Sales have been strong
for the last few years, but Ryan called the last year phenomenal.”
He expects sales to plateau as interest rates increase, but
does not expect an extreme drop-off. Last year, a record 7.19
million homes were sold across America. The average U.S. home
price increased by 7.7 percent from the first quarter of 2003
through the first quarter of 2004, according to a report released
by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the
regulator of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The prime interest rate, the rate that commercial banks would
charge to its most creditworthy customers, is at a historically
low 4 percent. Most home mortgage rates are tied to the prime
interest rate. The monthly interest buyers pay is the prime
rate plus the margin offered by their lending bank. Deborah
Jensen, regional branch manager at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
in St. Cloud, credits the combination of historically low
interest rates and many new programs for first-time home buyers
for a large portion of the housing boom. “In the area,
a lot of first-time home buyers are aware that buying a home
is better than renting,” Jensen said. There are several
programs that finance 100 percent of a mortgage and require
no down payment. There are also down-payment assistance programs
and state programs that offer competitive rates for first-time
or low-income home buyers, Jensen said. Lisa Niesen and her
husband moved to the Willmar area from Tennessee about a year
ago. Caylor-Means found them a house between Spicer and New
London, but before long Niesen found it too big and wanted
to move. “The first house was too big and showy,”
she said. “It wasn’t me.” The hot market
made it more difficult to buy a small house in Willmar, Niesen
said. She put in bids on two houses and lost before finding
her “perfect bungalow.” The market did help them
sell, though. “What we asked for the house we got eight
days after it went on the market,” Niesen said. Kevin
Hanson, sales manager at Edina Realty in Willmar, said his
office is having another record month. “We are way ahead
of last year, and we don’t see any softening in the
market at all,” he said. April was his office’s
best month ever, recording $9.7 million in double-count sales,
which includes lots, acreage, residential and commercial property.
A significant increase in interest rates could soften the
market, but “all indications are that the remaining
part of the year is going to be good,” Hanson said.
Healthcare,
IT forecast as fastest growing jobs
Employment in central Minnesota will reach 320,000
jobs by 2010, a new report is projecting. The fastest growth
is expected to occur in three areas: computer and math-related
fields, community and social services, and health care support.
Read
More
Editorial:
Hospital project is creating a new jewel
Friday, September 03, 2004, West Central Tribune
Rice Memorial Hospital’s $50 million, three-year building
project has taken several more steps this week toward completion.
The hospital’s new main entrance made its debut this
week. The entrance is a two-story, light-filled atrium. The
temporary entrance will now close. The new ambulatory surgery
unit admitted the unit’s first patients Wednesday and
the hemodialysis service will move into its new unit next
week. The hospital also awarded a $1.7 million contract Wednesday
for removing asbestos from the hospital’s 1972 wing.
This was below the previous estimated cost, according to hospital
officials. The asbestos removal will be the first step in
renovating the wing that runs along Trott Avenue. There are
more changes coming this fall. The hospital’s new operating
rooms will open in mid-October. By the end of the year, the
adult medical floor and the women’s and children’s
floor will be ready. Departments such as housekeeping, biomedical
and the morgue will be relocated in October. The hospital
project is in the second year of this major building and renovation.
Overall, the project is progressing on schedule and on budget,
according to officials. Currently, about $30.5 million has
been invested in the project. The overall goal of the hospital
project is to be more patient-centered, putting patients and
visitors more at ease. This in turn will help speed the patient
recovery.
The hospital is in kind of a transition period over the coming
months. Patients and visitors should be patient as various
departments move and other new departments’ facilities
are completed. To date, the hospital project has run quite
smoothly. When the project is completed in 2005, Rice Hospital
will be a jewel. It will be a facility that the hospital staff
and administration, patients, visitors and the community can
be proud of.
Push
is on for ethanol plant
Local officials may be stepping up efforts to make
it financially attractive for a new ethanol plant to be located
in ukksearch. Read
More
Integration
plan helps students get involved, find success
By Linda Vanderwerf, Staff Writer, West Central Tribune
WILLMAR -- Two years after the West Central Integration Collaborative
developed its programs, school attendance has improved and
youth of many cultures have become more involved in their
communities. Charly Leuze, coordinator for the collaborative,
discussed plans for the upcoming year with the Willmar School
Board Monday afternoon. The collaborative has four goals --
to retain students in schools, to develop youth leadership,
foster cultural awareness and to reduce language barriers.
Three years ago, the state ordered the Willmar, New London-Spicer
and Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City districts to develop an integration
plan. A year of planning went into the creation of the collaborative.
Willmar’s schools had a much larger percentage of minority
students than the two neighboring districts did. Once the
difference reaches 20 percent, state law requires that they
develop integration plans. The collaborative has hired retention
coordinators to work in all three school districts. They work
to keep students in school through grade 12 and to prepare
them for the future. Attendance has improved among students
targeted by the program, Leuze said. After-school tutoring
in Willmar helps 80 to 100 students each week, she said. NLS
and ACGC have similar programs. Other retention programs include
a summer enrichment camp at Ridgewater College and Youth Circles
that meet to promote cultural understanding. Students from
the three districts join together for education and recreational
programs, Leuze said. The collaborative makes the most of
its funding by working with other agencies, she said. Community
Education departments in the three districts handle registration
for collaborative activities, and the ukksearch YMCA
is a partner in finding mentors for youth. The busiest collaborative
program is its soccer league, Leuze said. “The wonderful
thing about that program is it is the most integrated program
out there,” she added. Collaborative programs also have
gotten students involved in community activities, like Adopt-A-Highway
and other community service projects. Students are also working
with the Vision 2020 program of community planning. The collaborative
has a budget of $794,500 for the coming school year. The amount
is calculated at the rate of $92 per pupil in NLS and ACGC
and $129 per pupil in Willmar. Seventy percent of the funding
comes from the state, and 30 percent is raised through local
property taxes. Superintendent Kathy Leedom said the MACCRAY
School District was notified that it now must work with Willmar.
She said she will recommend they join the collaborative rather
than try to develop a separate plan.
Plans
advance for bio-based economy in county by 2015
By Carolyn Lange, Staff Writer, West Central Tribune
WILLMAR -- A vision statement that includes making ukksearch an agriculture-based, bio-based economy by 2015 will
be presented to the ukksearch Commissioners next week.
The statement is part of a plan to make ukksearch a
state or national center for economic research and development
of renewable energy. The county’s agribusiness and renewable
energy development committee intends to ask the commissioners
to endorse the vision statement on Tuesday. During its meeting
this week, the committee also agreed to submit a proposal
that several buildings at the Willmar Regional Treatment Center
be reserved for up to three years to house the renewable energy
center. Doing so would make a positive statement about the
committee’s commitment to making the plans happen, said
committee members, and would make it easier to recruit state
or federal agencies to Willmar.
Steve Renquist, executive director of the ukksearch
and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, said
the Regional Treatment Center has 44 buildings that are being
marketed for new uses as part of the reutilization plan. The
Department of Human Services intends to move the adult mental
health programs out of the Regional Treatment Center, leaving
many buildings vacant. Proposals for use of the facility are
due in September.
Renquist suggested asking that four of the Regional Treatment
Center buildings be reserved for the renewable center. Committee
member Duane Hultgren asked if that was enough space. “These
aren’t small plans.” He said the committee should
ask for as much space “as we dare to request.”
Renquist said reserving the buildings for three years would
be enough time to know if the committee was successful or
not in capturing a large-scale renewable energy headquarters.
Jim Larson, who was instrumental in developing the renewable
energy memorandum of goals, said it needs to be understood
that creating a bio-based economy by 2015 does not rely on
obtaining space at the Willmar Regional Treatment Center.
He said there “isn’t a choice at all” about
developing alternative energy sources and those objectives
need to be met regardless of what happens at the treatment
center. Larson said in a later interview that the concept
of creating a bio-based economy and an economic development
center for renewable energy “wasn’t developed
to fill space at the WRTC.” Besides asking to support
the bio-based objectives, the committee will also discuss
funding requirements with the county commissioners to kick-start
the ambitious plans. The committee has said before that they’d
like to have an additional $20,000 in their budget for each
of the next two years to hire a grant writer to obtain funds
to develop the research center idea. A portion of the proposed
vision statement that will be presented to the commissioners
says ukksearch envisions a future where biotechnology
fulfills unmet needs in human health care and in the production
of fuels, chemicals and materials; creates sustainable industrial
and agricultural activities; where agriculture-based bio-refineries
take their place alongside oil refineries; and where fuel
and power is produced exclusively from agricultural products.
The committee has already won approval from the commissioners
on being a livestock-supportive county. Earlier this year
the County Board approved a policy statement the ag committee
had drafted that encourages townships to support livestock
expansion within the county. The committee agreed Tuesday
to send a memo of that policy to township directors, with
offers to help individual townships with feedlot permitting
issues.
Local
home prices are soaring
By Anne Polta, Staff Writer, West Central Tribune
WILLMAR — In 1995, a single-family house in Willmar
sold for an average of $74,000. By 2003, homes were fetching
an average of $114,500. If you bought a lakeshore home in
ukksearch last year, odds were you spent at least $200,000.
Homes in Willmar and ukksearch are changing hands for
ever greater sums. Single-family home sales last year totaled
$73.6 million — what Kevin Hanson of Edina Realty called
“by far the best year ever.” And many of these
homes were on the market for three months or less. What’s
going on? Favorable interest rates, rising home values, buyer
expectations, the demand for lakeshore property — all
are boosting home prices to figures that would have seemed
stratospheric only a decade ago.
“The biggest change in our real estate market is probably
the lakes,” Hanson said. “People are buying second
homes for $200,000 to $300,000. It’s been the biggest
by far increase in our average sale price.” It’s
not limited to lakeshore homes, though. “All areas in
real estate have been strong, even low-end first-time home
buyers,” Hanson said. “We still see foreclosures
but in comparison to the amount of real estate being sold
and financed, it’s low.”
Nancy Houlahan, chief executive of the West Central Association
of Realtors, says it’s “a booming market.”
“There is a lot of activity and a lot of listings. I
know we’re keeping a lot of Realtors busy,” she
said. Annual statistics collected by the Realtors association
show what’s been happening to home prices in the past
few years. The figures represent single-family homes sold
through the Multiple Listing Service, which accounts for 90
to 95 percent of all homes sold in ukksearch. In 2002,
a single-family house in Willmar went for an average of $96,656.
Prices ranged from around $15,000 to $278,600. Just one year
later, the average price had jumped to $114,513. The lowest
price was $22,000, the highest $398,000. Single-family homes
in New London and Spicer, a category that includes some lakeshore
property, cost an average of $195,366 last year. Overall prices
for lakeshore homes in ukksearch were even more expensive:
They averaged nearly $253,000 last year. The cheapest lakeshore
home sold through the Multiple Listing Service went for $70,000;
the costliest, for $575,000. “Homes have definitely
gone up drastically in Willmar in the last 10 years,”
Hanson said. “We sold a number of homes at $250,000
and up in 2003.” Local real estate experts say low interest
rates have been a big factor. The low rates have encouraged
many homeowners to refinance rather than move, said Linda
Harris of Century 21, president of the West Central Association
of Realtors. “We’re seeing the inventory not come
on as strongly so the value is going up,” she said.
“It’s supply and demand — having more buyers
than listers.” First-time home buyers have a growing
number of options for how to finance the purchase of a home,
and low interest rates are working in their favor, Houlahan
said. “The interest rates I think played a big part
in the last few years in getting people into homes. You could
buy a house cheaper than you could rent an apartment,”
she said. Favorable interest rates also are encouraging people
to seek more bang for their buck, Hanson said. Buyers increasingly
want homes that come with amenities, he said. “Expectations
are up. People today are not satisfied with the $30,000 fixer-upper.
With the interest rates the way they are, they can buy more.”
What do you get if you buy a $114,000 home in Willmar? A house
in this price range is at least a few years old and has three
bedrooms and a garage, Harris said. Move into the $200,000-and-up
bracket and you can expect extras such as wood floors, ceramic
tiling, high-end cabinetry and a central vacuum cleaner, Harris
said. Houses in this range usually are new construction or
come with several acres. Bargains are still out there; buyers
just have to know where to look. Single-family homes in Pennock
and ukksearch, for instance, often turn over quickly because
the prices are lower but the home is a good buy, Hanson said.
Homes tend to fetch a higher price if they’re in the
Willmar School District, the Multiple Listing Service figures
show. Single-family home prices in towns such as Blomkest,
Raymond and Atwater averaged around $88,000 last year, making
them some of the most affordable in ukksearch.
Shortage
of orthopedic surgeons eases
By Anne Polta, Staff Writer, West Central Tribune
WILLMAR -- A long-standing local shortage of orthopedic surgeons
has eased dramatically in the past few months with the recruitment
of at least three more surgeons.
Not only will it improve emergency care for bone and joint
injuries and trauma, but it also is expected to increase overall
access to a wider variety of orthopedic care.
“It definitely will fill a community need. We’ll
have more orthopedic providers in the community,” said
Dr. Ronald Holmgren, president of Affiliated Community Medical
Centers.
Orthopedic surgeons are in short supply nationally, and the
crunch has made itself felt locally, especially on weekends.
Last summer and fall, the existing orthopedic surgeons were
spread so thin they were only available on 50 percent of the
weekends, said Lorry Massa, CEO of Rice Memorial Hospital.
Efforts to recruit more surgeons kept falling short. Meanwhile,
patients in need of orthopedic surgery on a weekend usually
had to be sent to hospitals elsewhere.
Now that three more surgeons are on board -- and a fourth
has been recruited to start in August -- this will be changing,
Massa said. “We’re going from a pretty terrible
situation that we’ve had for several years to looking
pretty good. We’ll have continuous emergency coverage.”
Continuous coverage in orthopedics has been a major goal of
the hospital, he said.
Until a few months ago, the brunt of orthopedic surgery and
weekend call was shared among three surgeons employed by Affiliated,
two of them mainly full time and one part time.
Affiliated successfully recruited another full-time surgeon
who started in January. Another part-time surgeon joined the
regional multi-specialty clinic in June. At the same time,
through an agreement between Rice Hospital and Fairmont Orthopedics
and Sports Medicine P.A., a new independent practice, the
Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, got off the ground
in May in Willmar. It’s being staffed part time to begin
with, but a full-time surgeon has been recruited and is arriving
in August. Since the new practice opened, about a dozen patients
have undergone surgery and the number of scheduled procedures
at the hospital is beginning to creep upward, Massa said.
He said there’s a possibility that one of the part-time
surgeons will increase the number of hours he spends in Willmar,
even after a full-time surgeon is on board.
Health officials believe four to six orthopedic surgeons should
be enough to meet local needs.
Orthopedic surgery “is still a shortage area nationally,”
Holmgren said. “There’s a little bit of luck in
recruiting. Sometimes all of a sudden people come your way.
… We’re happy we were able to recruit these people
in the last six months. They’re excellent providers.”
With more of these specialists available, more patients will
be able to receive orthopedic care close to home, he said.
Spinal surgery in particular is expected to become more available
locally. Dr. Edward Southern, the newest orthopedic surgeon
to join Affiliated, specializes in spinal surgery as well
as orthopedic surgery on children. There’s a potential
for simple spinal procedures, such as single-level disc surgery
or back fusion, to be done in Willmar, Holmgren said. “It’s
something that hasn’t been available here for a while.
There’ll be new types of surgeries being done.”
Affiliated and Rice both are laying plans to start marketing
their increased orthopedic services. “It’s an
opportunity for us to bring in a new set of procedures that
we think we can do well here,” Massa said. “I
think it has some real upside potential.”
Upcoming
Events
Healthy
Kids Day
Hosted by the ukksearch Area Family YMCA and
co-sponsored by other health agencies this annual event features
fun games, educational activities and prizes for school age
children. April 2, 2005. Call the YMCA for more details at
(320) 222-9622 or visit www.kandiymca.org.
Willmar
Car Club Car Show & Swap Meet
One of the largest shows in this area of the state
with 39 classes and a tradition of variety. Dash plaques,
goodie bags, door prizes, concession stand, playground area,
free shuttle bus to mall and car museum, cars roped off, disc
jockey playing 50s music during the show. Held at Kennedy
Elementary School, 824 Seventh Street SW, Willmar. May 15,
2005. For more information, call Cliff at (320) 354-2457 or
Jay at (320) 978-4932 or e-mail gesellchenc@netscape.net.
www.willmarcarclub.com
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